Monday, November 19, 2012

Baby Steps

11/19/2012

In my opinion, which is backed by several articles I have read, the best way to make a lasting change is gradually. I want to leave a positive imprint on the world, and maybe I'm passionate enough that I could make drastic changes to my lifestyle and stick with them... but my husband is not! A new study suggests that it takes on median 66 days to form a habit, perhaps the old quote "slow and steady wins the race" applies to more than just well races!

I have always cared about the environment and now that I'm an adult, I'm married, and I make the financial decisions and do the grocery shopping, I feel like I'm just as culpable for the state of our earth as anyone else! I'm not a child anymore and I don't have to live in the shadow of anyone else, my family wasn't eco friendly or very healthy growing up but that doesn't mean my family can't be! I'm changing things, and so should you!

Rather than waiting for the new year to set my goals into resolutions I decided to start now. Every day is a new day and with the rising of the sun, hope is renewed. Each month my husband and I are setting goals for our family. Since my husband, Chris, is serving our country and should have basic any time now we aren't planning to far ahead.

Decembers phase is the trash/recycling phase of our plan. Although our city offers its residents curbside recycling we live in an apartment that doesn't offer recycling, fortunately however I found out today that an apartment across the street has facilities that I can use to recycle. Plan B to recycle would have been my mothers because earlier this week I called her city to ask them if they offered curbside recycling, why she hadn't been notified, and got it set up for them to deliver a recycling container to her! Unfortunately some cities make recycling difficult, like where my aunt lives to where its not a easy switch... Apartments like mine that don't offer recycling can also make it difficult if you don't know of a place nearby that you can take it!
Decembers phase involves more than just recycling however, we also plan on:

1. Using reusable containers/cups rather than disposable.

2. Using reusable cloth store bags and totally eliminating the need for the plastic bags (which aren't good for the environment even if you do recycle or reuse them... more on that later*)

3. Getting take out food less (due to all the packaging, stereo foam containers and cups, pizza boxes, etc.)

4. Buying the bigger container when shopping, unless it will cause me to waste ( this is usually the more cost efficient option also!)

5. Eliminating Gift Bags and Wrapping Paper completely (instead we will be using newspaper to wrap gifts, and be giving cloth bags in place of gift bags to encourage others to use them in place of plastic... more on this later*)

Reusable options, in general, are more eco & wallet friendly. Since I have built myself a stockpile of certain items (more on this later*), I will be using them before switching over. Waste is rarely ever green in either sense! However to eliminate even more waste consider finding reusable options such as razors, toothbrushes, etc, and consider bringing your own bags for food out of bulk bins that you can store in reuasable containers and avoid any packaging on!